By admin 
Darts promoter Barry Hearn has been warned not to get ‘greedy’ as he considers moving the World Darts Championship away from Alexandra Palace.
The north London venue has hosted the sport’s flagship event since 2007, when it took over from the Circus Tavern in Essex. But with darts’ popularity booming in the wake of Luke Littler’s high-profile rise, Hearn and the PDC are mulling over the prospect of finding a new arena with a larger capacity.
“For this year’s World Championship, 90,000 tickets were sold out within 15 minutes,” he said talkSPORT last month. “I asked my people at (the) headquarters how many I could have sold. They said somewhere above 300,000. Now that puts a different emphasis. I have to constantly grow. If you ever get complacent, you go backwards.”
While a bigger venue would bring in a lot more money for the PDC, darts legend Bobby George believes it would be a mistake to leave the iconic venue.
“The great thing about Ally Pally is that it is always full and there is always a great atmosphere,” the 79-year-old, who retired in 2009, said Expresssport. “If they move it to a bigger location, they might not be able to fill it every day of the tournament.
“If you don’t let the public watch darts, it becomes a less attractive product even for the people watching it on TV. The darts players love the feeling they get from the crowd at Ally Pally.”
The current World Championship venue has a capacity of 3,500, while as many as 14,000 fans were at The O2 in May to watch Littler win the title. Premier League Darts final. It remains to be seen whether Hearn would look at a similar arena from 2026, or even consider taking the tournament abroad.
There was talk of Saudi Arabia hosting the World Darts Championship until Hearn confirmed that a strict alcohol ban ruled this out as a possibility. George, nicknamed the King of Bling, is convinced that it should stay closer to home.
“I think it should stay where it is for now,” he continued. “I don’t think they need to get greedy because if it moved to a much bigger location and it didn’t sell out, you’d lose something very special.
“Stick with Ally Pally and keep it in Britain. Don’t take it to another country or drop a bombshell by trying to put it in the biggest location possible.”
Bobby George spoke on behalf of The Express with 10bet.